Multimedia scenography — La Conciergerie

Colin Bouvry was part of the consortium selected by the Centre des monuments nationaux to deliver the multimedia scenography for the new permanent exhibition trail in the former revolutionary tribunal — the court that tried 4,000 people between 1790 and 1792, among them Marie-Antoinette, Robespierre, Danton and Lavoisier. From 14 December, La Conciergerie presents a new revolutionary trail combining information on the Revolution, multimedia installations and a collections-conservation workshop open to view.

Educational and affecting, these innovative mediation devices allow the monument to be rediscovered. Through photographs, videos, innovative digital tools, works, objects, models and texts, the new trail invites you into the history of the French Revolution, and into another face of a founding moment of modernity and an emblematic one for Paris.

Interactive model — photographs by Arnaud Waels and Emmanuel Rouillier. Follow the path of one of the monument’s prisoners through her trial before her judges, from arrest to execution, on an animated model installed inside the monument. A touchscreen displays that path, and each action performed lights up the corresponding place on a physical model, so that anyone can grasp how the prison and the tribunal worked from day to day during the Revolution.

In the “room of names” — a multitouch table for consulting the archive files. A multitouch table giving access to the documentary archive files of the 4,000 people tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal during the French Revolution. Visitors can consult, as a group, the detailed records of those judged, along with the original handwritten judgment file, digitised — its pieces transcribed and translated into several languages for around a hundred of them.

Techniques (interactive model): C++, HAPQ, OpenGL. With thanks to the libcinder community for the framework and for the blocks Cinder-Hap2, Cinder-poSpritesheet, Cinder-UiTree and Cinder-Warping. Credits: Emmanuel Rouillier — concept and production supervision. Loïc Thirion Lopez, Héritage Virtuel — 3D modelling and imagery. Tactile Studio — model fabrication.

Sequoia — fitting out. ETC Audiovisuel — equipment. Arnaud Waels, Devocité — software development of the multitouch archive table in the room of names. Colin Bouvry — software development of the interactive model. And the whole team at the CMN.